Friday, February 16, 4:30 – 6:30 pm, CWAC 152
Architecture and/or Miniature? The Informative Ambiguity of the Zhakou White Pagoda
Jiayi Zhu
Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago
The Zhakou White Pagoda before sunset in December, 2017.
This paper is a case study of the Zhakou White Pagoda閘口白塔 (the white pagoda at the sluice gate) in Hangzhou. This 14-meter stone pagoda has been standing at the intersection of Qiantang River and Zhonghe River since the Wuyue Kingdom (907–978 CE). It is an octagonal structure imitating the timber-frame louge (pavilion) style pagoda. Rather than calling it architecture, scholars refer to it as a sculpture or a model. Why is this pagoda constructed in this specific way, larger than a conventional sculpture but smaller than a wooden-structured real pagoda? What aspects of the pagoda contributed to this ambiguity? And how this ambiguity influenced interactions between viewers and the Zhakou White Pagoda? What about the functions of this pagoda? These are some questions I will try to address.
Friday, February 16, 4:30 – 6:30 pm, CWAC 152
Persons with concerns regarding accessibility please contact Nancy P. Lin (nancyplin@uchicago.edu)
